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Now, the untold story – Captain Kirk's First Mission!

Enterprise: The First Adventure is a Pocket TOS novel written by Vonda N. McIntyre. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in September 1986, and outlines the first mission undertaken by James T. Kirk as Captain of the USS Enterprise.

Summary[]

From the book jacket
James T. Kirk is the youngest man to be promoted to the rank of captain in Federation history. His crew consists of a first officer who finds him impetuous; a chief engineer who finds him arrogant; a chief medical officer who finds him trifling; and a helmsman who wants a transfer.
But the young crew, which would later become the legendary space explorers, quickly puts aside their differences when a monstrous starship appears on their nascent flight path.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Memorable quotes[]

"…and I know that Captain Kirk will find the Enterprise and its crew as faithful as I did."

- Christopher Pike


"No, he treats me like I'm fifteen. That's when he met me. He treats you like you're eight."

- Sam Kirk


"I believe that what Ms. Lukarian is trying to tell you is that you are a doctor, not a magician."

- Spock


"I do not control the worldship, James. I control the universe."

- Scarlet

Background information[]

  • This was the first of Pocket Books' so-called "Giant" novels, featuring a larger page count, and falling outside of the numbered novel system.
  • Enterprise: The First Adventure reached number four on the New York Times Best Seller List for 14 September 1986. [1] It remained on the list until at least 12 October 1986.
  • The Science Fiction Book Club released a special hardback edition of the novel in December 1986.
  • The audiobook adaptation was performed by George Takei and Leonard Nimoy, and was released on cassette and as part of the Star Trek 25th Anniversary Audio Collection CD set.
  • The choice of date for the story's setting is taken from VOY: "Q2", which sets Kirk's taking command of the Enterprise in 2265. No such mention of the official year is mentioned in the novel.
  • The novel was the first to establish Kirk's mother's name as 'Winona'. This would later be canonically confirmed with the release of the 2009 Star Trek film.
  • Janice Rand's age is given as sixteen. This would place the year of her birth in 2249.
  • The name of Kirk's first command, the USS Lydia Sutherland, was an amalgam of two of Horatio Hornblower's commands, the HMS Lydia (from the novel The Happy Return) and HMS Sutherland (from A Ship of the Line).

Cover gallery[]

Characters[]

James T. Kirk
Captain.
Spock
Commander.
Leonard McCoy
CMO.
Montgomery Scott
Lt. Commander.
Hikaru Sulu
Lieutenant.
Uhura
Lieutenant.
Janice Rand
Yeoman.
Christine Chapel
Gary Mitchell
Carol Marcus
Christopher Pike
Captain, promoted to commodore.
Noguchi
Admiral.
Mark Piper
Doctor.
Kyle
Chief.
Winona Kirk
Sam Kirk

Mentioned[]

Philip Boyce
CMO of Starbase 32.
Hunter
Captain of the Aerfen.
Captain Hunter previously appeared in The Entropy Effect, also written by McIntyre.

References[]

Spacedock
Starbase 13
Starbase 32

External links[]


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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - Short Stories Pocket TOS
Unnumbered novels
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
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